Official: Bentley SUV Coming by 2016

Model To Be Built in Crewe, Adding 1000 Jobs to Factory

After teasing us for more than a year with the EXP 9 F concept's debut at the 2012 Geneva show
, Bentley has finally jumped off the fence and into the world of reality with an announcement that a Bentley-branded SUV is indeed coming, and will be on sale by 2016. Precise details on the model itself were scarce from the press release, but piecing together what we already know about the EXP 9 F and the Volkswagen Group's global portfolio of resources, we can come to a few logical conclusions.

The model will almost certainly share some hardware with the Porsche Cayenne, Volkswagen Touareg, and Audi Q7, but will most likely be larger than any of them. But unlike its Teutonic cousins, the Bentley will be built in Crewe, England, the historic home of the Flying B. The addition of the SUV to Crewe will result in the addition of more than 1000 jobs at the site, and is accompanied by an investment of more than $1.2 billion in the Crewe manufacturing facilities.

The company claims the styling will "set it apart from any other SUV on the road" and that it will "be the most luxurious and powerful SUV in the market," adding that "response from customers to a Bentley SUV has been extremely positive in the last 16 months."